P-15

Introduction

The RAAK-MKB project “Adding smart functions to biobased facades” dealt with the topic of polypyrrole and the application thereof on wood and textile materials to improve the properties of the substrate material. The Saxion research group of Smart Functional Materials was asked to execute an explorative research on the application of polypyrrole on textiles. The goal of the research was to investigate the feasibility of polypyrrole application on textiles.

Literature study

A literature study was conducted on the application of polypyrrole on textiles and the application thereof. In-situ polymerisation of pyrrole in the presence of an oxidising agent appeared to be the most promising application mechanism. Polypyrrole treated textiles appeared to show a high resistance to bacterial attack and show electrical conductivity.

Experimental work

A first series of experiments was conducted in which pyrrole was in-situ polymerized on lab scale with Fe(III)chloride as an oxidising agent, which was the standard oxidising agent from literature. The potential of other oxidising agents like Fe(III)sulphate and ammonium persulphate, which lead to less corrosion problems, was investigated. The effect on the polymerisation of the type of oxidising agent, but also process parameters as time, concentration and temperature was studied by measuring weight gain and assessing the blackening of the textile sample. The electrical conductivity of the samples was also measured.

Results

The application of polypyrrole on textiles by in-situ polymerisation has been successfully executed on lab scale, as appeared by the blackening of the samples for all three types of oxidising agents. A mass gain of about 12,5 % resulted in a relatively high conductivity of the textile (1kΩ/cm).

Figure 1 Example of a black textile with polypyrrole.

Follow-up

Potentially interesting applications identified in the research are shielding applications (conductivity) and outdoor textiles (e.g. tent cloth) with a higher resistance to bacterial attack. At present, we are preparing a proposal follow-up project for a follow-up project to explore scaling up and to optimize performance in these applications.